2014 Year in Review

I haven’t been posting regularly and I am hoping to get back into the habit of regular blogging again. beginning with a wrap up of 2014. For the most part, 2014 was a good year. Like every other year there were highs and lows.

• We started the year with a wedding. My little brother got married! He and his wife are so good together and it is obvious that they are happy in each other’s company.
• My daughter tried out for the high school cheer leading squad. She didn’t make it, but she was close. It devastated her and we are still dealing with the affects from that today.
• We signed my two boys up for special needs baseball and bowling. Both boys fall on the autism spectrum, so this was exciting to be able to get them involved in something where they were accepted.
• We bought a new—to us—car, a Dodge Durango. It is perfect and had everything we were looking for. Also came at a great price.
• My husband started helping to teach our Sunday school class. He teaches once a month and I think he has learned a lot about himself from the process.
• The biggest high of the year was taking a week long vacation—without the kids—to Canada to see Niagara Falls. That was amazing! We are both big fans of road trips so we drove from Texas. We stopped at several places along the way there and back.
• I turned 40 this year. 40 has been a pretty amazing year.
• My oldest child started high school and my youngest child started kindergarten.
• My husband and I celebrated 20 years of being together, that’s half of our life!
• The biggest low of the year was my father-in-law passing away. That came with a lot of struggles, more than was necessary, because of anger from unresolved issues and certain family members fighting to get their way and not willing to compromise. We continue to pray for healing in that area.
• I’ve always wanted to go back to work, but having two boys on the spectrum has made that extremely difficult. My oldest son’s needs are too demanding for me to be a reliable employee to any company. I ended up finding a wonderful volunteer opportunity through a non-profit organization; National CASA Association, that works with abused and neglected children. It isn’t a paycheck, but I wasn’t really looking to make more money, I wanted something more constructive to do with my time. I love the work that I am doing and love that I can do most of the work on my own time. 
• My daughter got her first major role in a play at the community theatre. She had a great time and we are looking forward to the possibility of her participating in more performances with them.

All in all, a pretty good year. Looking forward to what 2015 has to offer. Already in the process of putting plans into place for some very exciting memories to be made with the family.